Censorship and the Permissive Society

British Cinema and Theatre, 1955-1965

Anthony Aldgate

Description

Stage or film presentations of Look Back in Anger, A Taste of Honey, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Alfie, and Darling were much changed, even transformed, by censorship between 1955-1965. Indeed, censorship altered the progression of the artistic and creative renaissance of the period, and John Osborne, Shelagh Delaney, Alan Sillitoe, Tony Richardson, Lindsay Anderson, and John Schlesinger are just a few of the people who were forced to change their work.

Censorship and the Permissive Society explores the predicament writers and directors faced, and highlights the debate over the liberalizing or progressive aspects of the sea changes affecting British society at the time.

Censorship and the Permissive Society

British Cinema and Theatre, 1955-1965

Anthony Aldgate

Author Information

Anthony Aldgate is Senior Lecturer in History and Sub Dean in Arts at The Open University, Visiting Professor at the University of Luton, and Associate Tutor at Rewley House, Oxford. He is author of Cinema and History: British Newsreels and the Spanish Civil War (Scolar Press, London, 1979); Best of British: Cinema and Society, 1930-1970 (Blackwell, 1983; Barnes & Noble, Totowa, NJ, 1983); Britain Can Take It: The British Cinema in the Second World War (Blackwell, 1986); The Common Touch: The Films of John Baxter (BFI, 1989); Between Two Wars (Open UP, 1990); World War II and Its Consequences (Open UP, 1990).

"Aldgate deftly charts the Establishment's reactions to the first rumblings of the post-war cultural revolution in the late fifties and early sixties"--History Today

"...a detailed account of a transitional period in the history of British Cinema and Theatre censorship...this book provides a fascinating insight into the process of censorship and the changes in British society which were reflected in the censor's decisions...will give perspective to anyone interested in current censorship issues."--Film Magazine